Texas Rangers Snap Long World Series Drought, Bring Title Back to Arlington
PHOENIX — The Texas Rangers did so many things when they won the World Series on Wednesday, beating Arizona 5-0.
One of the many was ending its longest active streak of any team in the four major sports without its first championship.
The Rangers won their first World Series 62 seasons after they took their bow as the Washington Senators in 1961 as an expansion team. After a decade in D.C., the Senators moved south and into Arlington Stadium, becoming the Texas Rangers.
Texas didn’t make the postseason until 1996, when it won the AL West title for the first time. They followed that with two more division titles in 1998 and 1999, but they never made it past the Division Series, losing to the New York Yankees all three times.
Marcus Semien and the Rangers won their first World Series on Wednesday night.
The Rangers didn’t reach the American League Championship Series or the World Series until 2010, when they accomplished both. But the Rangers fell short of a world title that season, losing to the San Francisco Giants in five games.
They also returned to the World Series in 2011 but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
Until Wednesday, the Rangers had never won the title.
"I'm blessed," manager Bruce Bochy said.
Now, the streak falls to the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres, each of which have been in existence for 55 seasons but has never won a title.
If you’re wondering about the Cleveland Guardians, well, they have the longest title drought in baseball at 75 seasons. But the Guardians have won a World Series in their history, which dates back to 1948. Their only other world title was in 1920.
Additionally, the Rangers are one of four teams with no World Series titles over their first 60 seasons, the other being the Phillies (97, 1883-1979), the Orioles (65, 1901-65) and the Dodgers (65, 1890-1954), per Elias. Elias also noted that if you exclude seasons in which there was no World Series played (1902 and earlier, 1904, 1994), the longest streaks were Phillies (76, 1903-1979, excluding 1904), Orioles (62, 1903-65, excluding 1904), and Rangers (61, 1961-2022, excluding 1994).
The Rangers’ 61-season span without a title was the eighth-longest in MLB history.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
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